Judit Polgar adds to her legend by reaching last eight of World Cup

Judit Polgar added another glowing chapter to her living legend this week when the all-time No1 female player, now a 35-year-old mother of two, reached the last eight of the World Cup and knocked out the top-seeded world No 5, Sergey Karjakin.

Polgar has competed little in recent years due to her family commitments but she outprepared and outgeneralled the 21-year-old Russian, who set out his stall for a draw by choosing the ultra-solid Berlin Wall. Polgar was ready and subtly weakened Black's defences. After Karjakin missed the best defence 21...Rh6! she found 24 Nc3!, netted a pawn, then converted it to a won ending.

Polgar then beat Cuba's Leinier Dominguez 4.5-3.5 after surviving an epic tie-break and now meets the six-time Russian champion Peter Svidler for a place in the semi-finals. Polgar v Svidler and the other quarter-finals are in progress morning (10am BST start) and can be viewed live and free on the internet.

Michael Adams, the British champion, has a fine record in global knockouts but was eliminated in round two by Denmark's Peter Nielsen. The game was a sharp Sicilian where Adams's crucial error was 18 Bc1? (18 Bh4!) allowing the classical tactic Rxc3! and Nxe4 which has won many games. Black has only knight and pawn for rook but his dominating central pawns and attack on the white king are hard to meet. When Adams erred again by 26 Nf1? (26 c3 Nf5 27 Nb3) Black's attack crashed through.